Krzysztof Penderecki - Works for Cellos and Orchestra (Antoni Wit)

Information

Composer: Krzysztof Penderecki

• Concerto Grosso No. 1 for 3 Cellos and Orchestra
• Largo for Cello and Orchestra
• Sonata for Cello and Orchestra

Ivan Monighetti, Arto Noras & Rafał Kwiatkowski, cellos

Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra

Antoni Wit, conductor

Date: 2008

Label: Naxos

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Review

Penderecki’s Sonata for cello and orchestra (1964) embodies his transition from the turbulent texturalism of his earliest works to the more expansive thematicism and rooted harmonies of the idiom fully revealed in the St Luke Passion. Though almost a miniature by his later standards, the Sonata parades an intriguing mix of styles, with more than a passing nod to those demonic caperings, stemming from Shostakovich, which would come to full flower in Penderecki’s operas The Devils of Loudon and Ubu Rex.

Such pointed forcefulness is much less evident in the disc’s pair of large-scale later pieces. It’s tempting to claim that the Concerto grosso (2000), while three times the length of the Sonata, and with three soloists to the Sonata’s one, has barely a third of the musical substance. Those drooping laments endemic to Penderecki’s neo-romantic idiom are thick on the ground, and the last two of the work’s six movements are particularly prone to predictable note-spinning. There are all too few of those less formulaic moments which make the fourth movement the most interesting.

Nevertheless, the work from 2003 called Largo, a concerto in three movements, none of which is actually marked largo, has more personality and more cogency. Perhaps Penderecki was enlivened by the Rostropovich commission (the 2005 premiere was one of the great cellist’s last appearances) and among its strengths are a beefy, dance-like march (more echoes of Shostakovich) and a poignant, uneasily serene ending. Arto Noras is an eloquent soloist in Largo, and all the other performers emerge with credit in recordings that tend to home in on the soloists while maintaining a rather resonant acoustic.

— Arnold Whittall

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Krzysztof Penderecki (23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer. After graduating from the Academy of Music in Kraków, he began teaching there and gained international recognition. His innovative compositions, characterized by experimental sonorities and distinctive orchestral techniques, include Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, St. Luke Passion, Anaklasis, Utrenja and Polish Requiem. His output also include 5 operas, 8 symphonies, concertos, chamber works and numerous choral compositions. Penderecki received many prestigious honors, including 4 Grammy Awards.

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Antoni Wit (born 7 February 1944) is a Polish conductor. Educated in conducting at the Academy of Music in Kraków and in Paris under Nadia Boulanger, he also holds a law degree from Jagiellonian University. Following success at the Herbert von Karajan Conducting Competition, he led major Polish orchestras, serving as director of the Warsaw Philharmonic from 2001 to 2013 and later as music director of Spain's Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra. Wit has made over 200 records, earning numerous international awards, including a GRAMMY Award, for his acclaimed interpretations of Polish and classical repertoire.

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